Grant aids learning science through arts

Thursday

Mar 21, 2013 at 6:00 AMMar 21, 2013 at 9:04 PM

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The EcoTarium is looking for 100 people interested in the arts, science, technology, engineering and math to be part of a National Science Foundation-funded project that will use the arts to teach STEM subjects and foster innovation.

The EcoTarium is the smallest of three partners in the $2.6 million, four-year Art of Science Learning grant. The other partners are the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and San Diego's Balboa Park Cultural Partnership.

In Worcester, the project will involve 100 “fellows” who will work in groups of 10 on either transportation innovations or inventive, art-informed ways to teach STEM subjects, said Harvey Seifter of New York, who is the project's director and principal investigator.

Ted Buswick, executive-in-residence in leadership and the arts at Clark University, will lead that part of the project from an office at the EcoTarium. He hopes to involve everyone from high school students to retirees to serve as fellows and their mentors. Each must commit at least a few hours a week to the project, which will be unpaid, although mentors will receive stipends.

The project, which was announced in the fall, is already gathering suggestions of fellows from its advisory council, which includes such people as Worcester school Superintendent Melinda J. Boone and Timothy Loew, executive director of the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute. People interested in becoming a mentor can contact Mr. Buswick at tbuswick@clarku.edu.

EcoTarium President Joseph P. Cox said the advisory council is “just dynamic,” and has been useful in building collaborations across the city. He also noted that tying the arts into science education has been something the museum has worked on for years. Children who visit the museum can do hands-on crafts related to exhibits, and the grounds have displayed sculptures. One need only look at Leonardo da Vinci or the Apple products under Steve Jobs to see the overlap between art, science and innovation, Mr. Cox said.

Mr. Seifter, a violinist who was formerly the executive director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, said the arts teach creativity, collaboration and communication in ways that nothing else can.

“It's the only way I know that you can cover so many of the things that matter to learning and to innovation,” he said.

The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays extremely complicated music, he said, but members work out ahead of time who will be the leader at any given point in a piece. It requires musicians who make decisions by consensus and, in a performance, listen even more attentively to their colleagues than usual, he said.

He has been applying principles from the arts to other fields for several years and co-edited a book with Mr. Buswick about arts-based learning for businesses.

Mr. Seifter's previous work includes a stint as executive director of the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts in Queens. In 2009, he was arrested on charges of double-billing expenses to that entity and Americans for the Arts, for whom he was a consultant, according to a Feb. 6 news release from the New York City's Department of Investigation. In an interview Wednesday, Mr. Seifter said it was a matter of “an administrative violation of disorderly record keeping.” He said he agreed to pay back the $4,230 in question, plus another $3,000.

The Queens district attorney's office said Wednesday the case was sealed after Mr. Seifter complied with all of the office's requirements.

Mr. Seifter said “it was a very hard lesson” in keeping better records. The National Science Foundation knew of the issue when it made its most recent grant, he said. The administrative sponsor, the entity that will disburse it, is the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership.

Mr. Cox said Wednesday he had just learned of Mr. Seifter's past charges, but the EcoTarim has “checks and balances in place.”

Mr. Buswick said in an email that he has “been aware of it since the start. I have full confidence in Harvey, and so has the NSF, which has also been in the loop.”

A representative from the NSF did not return several calls for comment on the matter.

Contact Jacqueline Reis via email at jreis@telegram.com and follow her on Twitter @JackieReisTG.